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The most recent example (remember last year’s $143 pencil sharpener installation?) is the trustee-generated request for a provincial spending audit of former director Chris Spence and the board’s Focus on Youth summer camp program for at-risk kids.

While the school board’s audit committee chair, Elizabeth Moyer, and several other committee members allege some sort of fiscal malfeasance, the motivation for the audit of the camp program is becoming increasingly murky. And that’s why this sorry saga could be another waste of education dollars — as much as $450,000, to be exact. (Imagine how that tidy sum could help the TDSB music programs that seem to always be in danger.)

Sure, Ontario’s ministry of education must proceed with an investigation of Spence’s spending, months after he resigned in a plagiarism scandal. But it’s far from clear that there’s any need for an expensive investigation into the Focus on Youth program. It has faced many previous audits, some quite recent, and none has found significant problems.

As the Star reported, the education ministry is conducting the audit at the official request of current TDSB director Donna Quan. If only trustees had also clamoured for a forensic investigation into the profligate spending of the board’s in-house trade council and its president’s powerful grip over staff and trustees. Or demanded public scrutiny of the $10 million in construction cost overruns at the Nelson Mandela Park Public School.

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Despite some operational reviews, those costly problems, indulged by the byzantine political connections among trustees, staff and the trade council, have so far managed to escape ministry scrutiny. How unfortunate.

Most worrisome, however, is the behaviour of Moyer, the board’s powerful audit committee chair. Moyer is facing conflict-of-interest allegations related to her request that the ministry conduct a forensic audit into the Focus on Youth program run by board superintendent Jim Spyropoulos.

Last year, it appears that Moyer asked Spyropoulos to hire her two teenage daughters for the youth program. Both got jobs, even though the summer camp was created to give employment opportunities to inner city at-risk kids — not the children of an elected official.

This year, Spyropoulos had a proper change of heart. He avoided Moyer and ignored a May 2 email from TDSB superintendent Nadira Persaud, who seemed unusually concerned about the summer employment opportunities for one of Moyer’s daughters and asked him to have her hired. Highly paid school board superintendents are not supposed to act as job recruiters for trustees’ children.

In any case, no job was offered and by the end of May — without declaring a conflict of interest — Moyer used her position as audit chair to ask the ministry for an audit of the Focus on Youth program. While three other audit committee members added their names to the letter, others, like trustee Sam Sotiropoulos, were not even told of the request. That’s not very democratic.

It’s unlikely that the ministry was aware of Moyer’s previous interest in the youth employment program. Sotiropoulos said he had never heard her declare a conflict of interest during audit committee meetings. Indeed, Moyer said she had no idea that declarations of conflict were required. Perhaps the board needs to update its ethical training.

In any event, Moyer’s actions have sparked a firestorm. Spyropoulos defended himself in a recent letter to the board’s director, saying he felt “intimidated and harassed” by Moyer’s suggestions that “she had great power within the audit committee.” He also says she touched him in an “unwelcome” way, by hugging him and touching his face. Moyer denies it.

Sadly, these political and personal machinations won’t be dealt with in any financial audit. And what might have been a basic demand for accountability is now clouded by petty conflicts, alleged threats and all-round silliness at Ontario’s largest school board.

Trustees are elected to improve education for children, not to create personal fiefdoms. The board needs to clean up its act and focus on education. Full stop.

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